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Yeah, I've whittled my paper library down to a little more than a bookshelf, everything else electronic. I'm tired of piles of magazines and technical books, likewise, all the odd-sized science fiction books I read strewn about.

My tablet is handy, and when I finish one book or magazine, I have a selection from which to choose something new wherever I might be.

As references, my technical books are far easier to pull up on my PC, and as a bonus, quickly searchable, even when the subject isn't in the index.

Sounds like a plot to a classic 70s TV movie or an episode of one of those anthology shows. Got to have the protagonist cupping his ears, with a look of severe distress as non-stop quick shots of things making innocuous noises flash, interjected by the camera wildly pan-zooming his face.

How has their position changed? Nuclear was their primary focus as an energy source in 1990, and is still a part of the strategy to move away from fossil fuels, the only shift is that other renewable energy source have grown more viable.

Prime thing, though, they need to offer a small selection of electronics.

RadioShack dabbled in Enthusiast PC hardware, but gave up on it. I found them to be fairly priced for getting stuff I needed "now"

The business model needs to change, but RS was unwilling to be more than just another wireless retailer with a few toys and electronics added in the mix. If you have a B&M footprint, you have to give consumers a reason to come in. Providing goods that people usually can't wait for 3 days to get, or offering some sort of technical training for all the new tech, as well as easier returns (or pickup) for mail order goods is a start.

Maybe a "tech of the month" display to show people what they won't see at Best Buy or Walmart, but can order through a kiosk on site after checking it out. Many consumers still like the personal treatment when buying big ticket items, but they don't like paying a premium, or dealing with clueless stockers when they have a question.

Geez, 30 years ago we were given a demonstration of snooping on non-Tempest equipment, with a van parked outside of our offices, showing keystrokes and fuzzy images of our monitors.

When I went to work at the RASC at Camp Kinser, just north of Naha (The mainframes were all housed in a building on the south side of the base, closest to the piers), there was always one or two Soviet "Fishing" vessels docked, with all sorts of crazy antennas (directional ones pointed at Camp Kinser), satellite dishes and such.

This is really, really old news. I've heard of far more exotic wireless, remote listening stuff, from phreaking sources back in the day, but I'm not sure that stuff has even been declassified yet.

Pascal was my first procedural language, after spending a year with BASIC on PET computers in the classroom (1982). We used TurboPascal on CP/M, and it allowed me to start writing serious software, as act as a gateway to C and later C++.

Today? I'd probably want to start a new student with C# or Java, but the concepts working with C and Pascal are more relevant to understanding the underlying mechanics of compiling code and coding "closer to the metal".

On the other hand, early BASIC was probably an easier transition to Assembler (who codes in that any more, though?).

Argh. After they say they are calling in regards to my card ending in "...1234" I ask them to identify the bank, at which point they balk.

Likewise, when scammers call me up about my [insert model year] [insert make] [insert model] and how my warranty is up, I ask them to name my warranty company (I know the exact terms and the company, having dealt with them a few times already), to which they have no answer. The last one got angry and hung up after I lectured her on scamming people.

As far as I'm concerned, I fully support the use of our Predator Drone program to identify, locate, and destroy these call centers (who are most certainly not calling from anywhere in the US, let alone near the area code spoofed on my caller id)

I'm glad her tumor was not inside her eye.... I've lost most of the vision in my right eye after radiation treatment for a tumor inside the eye. My Ocular Oncologist did extensive drawings of my retina and the tumor. I'm not sure MRI technology could have mapped it out well enough to make a reliable model. I also had to deal with the fun of having an ultrasound probe run over the surface of my eye to get a better idea of the size of the tumor. That was 4 years ago, and luckily, the ocular melanoma had not metastasized.

It's amazing how fine, delicate, almost microscopic work can be done these days.